A Visit with Seth Rogovoy: On Looking at Dylan Through a Jewish Lens

Seth Rogovoy. Photo credit: Richard Lovrich

Hard to believe April's already here with May just beyond the horizon. In the Northland we're still buried in a blanket of snow, but based on experience we know that there will eventually be green grass, buds on the trees and the promise of warmer weather. In the Duluth "event" cycle the Homegrown Music Festival, Duluth Dylan Fest and Grandma's Marathon will soon be unfolding like lilac blossoms.

At this year's Duluth Dylan Fest there will again be two John Bushey Memorial Lectures, one via Zoom which can be enjoyed from anywhere in the world and the other live. The first will feature Seth Rogovoy, a writer and producer who also works as an editor, radio commentator, lecturer, teacher, cultural programmer, record producer and theatrical producer.

Rogovoy has written extensively about Bob Dylan over the years. In addition to being author of Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet he is founder and curator of The Rogovoy Report, which self-describes as "an opinionated and radically curated digest of news and features from around the corner to around the globe."

One positive that came out of the tragic and disruptive Covid pandemic is that nearly everyone now knows how to use Zoom so that people across the country and around the globe can tune in for Rogovoy's multi-media presentation titled The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan. The free live event will take place Sunday May 21, 6:30–7:45 PM. Rogovoy describes his talk as "a 45-50 minute multimedia version of my book, where I examine Dylan's life (including his early life in Hibbing) and his musical career through a Jewish lens."

E: How did you first come to take a serious interest in the music and life of Bob Dylan? 

Seth Rogovoy: I began listening to Bob Dylan at an impressionable age, around 13, just as my music tastes were being formed. I had an older friend who was very into him and we would get together and play and sing Dylan songs on our acoustic guitars. So it was partly a case of "folk tradition," but also that Dylan offered something much more intellectually satisfying and more emotionally sophisticated than the music that was playing on the pop charts. I felt this deeply and it affected me strongly and influenced my own intellectual and emotional development, so that within a few years my interest in Dylan, listening to his songs, reading and writing about him, and playing and performing his music, became a significant part of my identity. It was a key factor in pointing me to toward my life and career path as a writer and more specifically as a music critic and journalist - on some level it was all about trying to figure out what made Dylan so great -- and so much greater than almost everything and everyone else. It was inevitable that I would eventually write a book about Dylan from a unique vantage point.

 

E: Why do you consider Planet Waves to have been your "perfect entry point" into the music of Bob Dylan?

SR: The sound of Planet Waves was immediately appealing and the songs were well-suited to singing and playing on acoustic guitar. They were intimate and personal and very easy to inhabit. And Planet Waves was the only studio album on which Dylan was backed by The Band -- Dylan's best accompanists ever.

 

E: What were the biggest surprises you discovered about Dylan when you took your own deeper journey into Judaism and mysticism?

SR: In reading and studying the panoply of Jewish texts -- scripture (e.g. the Bible), liturgical, philosophical, and mystical writings aka the Kabbalah -- I recognized many phrases, images, and concepts from my lifelong immersion in the work of Bob Dylan. For example, when I learned the prayer for blessing my children, I realized that Dylan had based "Forever Young" on that very same prayer. Instances like these just piled up quickly -- the phrase "one says to the other no man sees my face and lives" in "I and I" is almost wholly lifted from a sentence that God uttered to Moses when the latter asked the former if he could "view His countenance." And the "Wheels on Fire" imagery is a direct reference to the prophet Ezekiel, who scripture says appeared riding a chariot with wheels of fire. That sort of thing -- enough to fill a book!

E: In layman's terms, what is mysticism? 

SR: Mysticism of any kind, in any religion or belief system, is the pursuit of making a direct connection with the Divinity. There are many tools given in order to achieve this -- meditation, textual study, ecstatic singing, chanting, plumbing the mysteries of the esoteric, mystical writings. In Judaism, the overall term for this is Kabbalah. And following Hindu precepts, when George Harrison sang, "I really want to see You, I really want to be with You" in "My Sweet Lord," that is a direct expression of the mystical pursuit.

E: Your book Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet seems to have garnered a fair amount of praise. Why has there not been more attention paid to Dylan's Jewish heritage?

SR: Bob Dylan is multi-faceted, so when people talk about or write about Bob Dylan, there are so many avenues to explore. I cannot answer why there has not been more attention paid to Dylan's Jewish heritage, and I am not even sure that there has not been enough. I was happy to propose and write a deep dive into this one aspect of Dylan's life and work.

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EdNote: If you plan to join us live in Duluth for 2023 DDF, be sure to attend Saturday's John Bushey Memorial Lecture featuring Bobcats podcast host Matt Steichen. Steichen's talk is titled Bob Dylan and his Fans: Searching for Love and Inspiration. Wussow’s Concert Cafe, 1:30–3:00 PM | Free.

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Related Links

For a complete rundown of 2023 DDF events visit: 

https://duluthdylanfest.com/duluth-dylan-fest-2023/

Seth Rogovoy's Books on Amazon 

Throwback Thursday: Under the Volcano, a Movie Review

“The novel explores the Consul’s past and present, relates his private doom to the tragic fatalism of the Mexican scene…” ~ Stephen Spender

Under the Volcano is a novel written by critically acclaimed Malcolm Lowry. The book eventually became a film starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, directed by critically acclaimed John Huston. Both the film and the book failed to reach a wider public despite the brash, braying praise of critics.

Like Lowry, I lived in Mexico for a time, from fall 1980 till late 1981. During that time we traveled to a number of places including two trips to Cuernavaca. I loved Cuernavaca, the city where this story primarily occurs, the Land of Eternal Springtime where Cortez established his winter palace. Like Lowry and the tragic hero of his novel I, too, was present in Tepotzlan on a holy day when the dark-faced peasants in loose white clothes and wide hats brought out Christ and the Virgin from the shadows of monasteries, parading, holding high large displays and brightly colored pillars, burned incense, celebrating intently the blended religion of the peoples.

This story covers 24 hours in the life of an alcoholic, his last 24 hours, with his singular preoccupation on where he will get his next drink, simultaneously immersing the reader into his internal despondency, hopeless self-wreckage, introspection and hallucination. It is a tragic life culminating in a tragic end, perhaps intended to be the mirror of a forlorn culture shrouded in apparitions of death.

I originally took an interest in the book because I’d read that it was supposedly structured like the Kabbalah, the chapters being a series of steps toward enlightenment. My first effort to read it in the late 80’s left me flat, however, and I placed it back on the shelf for a couple years. The second attempt ended about a fourth of the way through with the same frustration. A couple more years past, and upon beginning the story I was transported inward to the heart of the characters, the culture, and the bleak futility of the hero’s quest.

John Huston took this very complicated ball of knots and attempted to straighten it out into its essential story. The film, inadequate to the task, did capture facets of the book’s essence. There is no way it could capture the spinning surrealistic writing, compelling inner monologues, and painfulness of Lowry’s heartfelt bloodletting.

Malcolm Lowry wrote the first draft in Mexico while living in Cuernavaca in 1938. Director Huston does an outstanding job of giving the feel of Mexico during this time frame. And the film brings to life many vivid memories of our time there…

Despite its shortcomings, I found myself still moved by the film. This is the second time I’ve watched it and this time I did enjoy the performances of Finney and Bisset, whom some have been especially critical of. Finney is nearly perfect throughout in his portrayal of a wrecked man. Bisset is equal to the task she must perform, confused, frightened, compassionate, pained.

The weakness of the film is perhaps the feeling that it was put together by a nostalgic older director who could have done more with the music, the camera work, the edits. Great films often grab you from the opening images, credits and soundtrack. I found myself having to overlook what I considered a weak appetizer that insufficiently lured me into the depths of our hero’s heart, mind, soul, struggle.

Huston could have done more with the film, but did not. Perhaps it is because of the era. He did not feel it necessary? I can’t say. The grandeur of his foreign setting is hinted at, but hollow. I cannot blame the actors for this. Finney was remarkable throughout, almost over the top. Bisset’s broken heart shone through with clarity.

It’s a good film and a rich, but difficult, book. If it is too depressing or too convoluted and enigmatic, you’re under no obligation to finish. But if you can’t put it down, then don’t.

“Time is a fake healer anyhow. How can anyone presume to tell me about you? You cannot know the sadness of my life…. Alas, what has happened to the love and understanding we once had?” ~ Geoffrey Firmin, Under the Volcano

All photos on this page are original, shot in Kodak Ektachrome, property of Ed Newman

Copyright 1981, Ed Newman

Permission to use is granted when attribution is cited.

THIS BLOG ENTRY WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED SIX YEARS AGO TODAY. The stock market dropped 700 points the previous day. 

Under the Volcano

Reading Under the Volcano again. No wonder I put it down three or four times before plowing thru. The first section is a fog of words about characters who you do not know, pieces of incidents half illuminated, nothing spelled out... little to hold onto. Reading on is thus almost a matter of faith. "There must be something here" because of the critical acclaim it achieved. He re-wrote it 17 or 19 times. It must be this way deliberately... inaccessible to all but the most determined.

June 15, 2000

My original fascination with Under the Volcano was due to its purported structure, corresponding to the Kabbalah, with its origins in Jewish mysticism. Having long fashioned myself as a mystic of sorts, I attempted several times to read this book which proved to be too tedious to get fully engaged in. Eventually, seven years ago I did get past the fog and received much enjoyment from the read, aesthetically and emotionally.

It is a tragic story about a the last twenty-four hours in the life of a once important man, a British consul in Mexico. The tragedy that is Mexico is played out as an undercurrent in this book which later became a film directed by John Huston and starring Albert Finney ("Daddy Warbucks" of the musical Annie.)

Of special interest to me are the scenes in Tepotztlan, a small town near Cuernavaca where I had been at Easter 1981. The annual ceremonies surrounding the crucifixion are featured in this film as the day of the dead is celebrated. For me, the film gave opportunity to relive that 1981 experience, or re-ignite its memory.

My first encounter with the Kabbalah came through the writings of Jacob Boehme, a mystic from centuries past who wrote about the "super-sensual life" or "Life which is above Sense." One who reads Under the Volcano seeking to find echoes of such things will come away disappointed. Perhaps the books structure is thus designed, but like a skeletal system that supports our bodies, you will not see any of it.

The book is about the tragic fatalism of one very isolated man whose sole preoccupation is, "Where will I get my next drink." But the story is much more than that, and for this reason, the determined reader will ultimately be rewarded. And for those who enjoy good writing, there are some very nicely written sentences.